


Morning Patrol

by noOneOfConcequence



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Activity Club Member Dimitri, Bonding, Friendship, Gen, Headcanons All Around, Introspection, Pre-Canon, Secrets, Spectral Dimitri, headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-29 17:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6386089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noOneOfConcequence/pseuds/noOneOfConcequence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ed tags along with Dimitri for morning patrol.</p>
<p>Set a few years before canon, with Dimitri as a fairly new member of the Activity Club.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning Patrol

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to lazylazuli, whose discussion and headcanons largely inspired this fic. Be sure to check out her blog at lazylazuli.tumblr.com, and her Ed ask blog at askburgerchild.tumblr.com

Dimitri tucked his hands into his pockets, heading down a hallway lined with fourth-grade classrooms. The hands of old analog clock on the wall ticked loudly, marking the time at just a few minutes before eight. Classes wouldn't start for another hour. Not that he needed a clock to know it was early – the lack of people made that clear enough. A few teachers, the janitorial staff, a handful of kids milling about; just enough people so that no one questioned one more student patrolling the halls.

Not that Mayview Elementary was ever really deserted. Even the supposedly empty hall Dimitri walked down now was teeming with life- well, in a sense of the word. Creatures like blue and green spiders scurried across the ground, darting between the feet of larger spirits. A few yellow puffs bumped into a large badger-like spirit, which hissed at the intrusion. A pair of ghosts darted between the walls, leaving trails of wisp behind them. One bumped against the clock on the wall as it raced through the hallway; the clock toppled to the ground as the last of the ghost vanished into concrete.

Interesting. Dimitri walked over, crouching down to inspect fallen clock. Maybe nothing, but worth a closer look. Dimitri took a deep breath, focusing on his outstretched hand. After a few moments spectral energy crept from his fingertips, enveloping the clock like a cloud of smoke. Nothing elaborate, just a small nudge – as always, control was key. He focused his attention on the exact movement and force of his spectral energy, condensing the wisps of energy into a small wave as they moved steadily towards the clock. There was a small scraping noise as the clock was pushed ever so slightly from its resting place. Dimitri smiled in satisfaction, letting the spectral energy dissipate.

“ _Krrrt_. Attention, we’ve got a code 2339 here. Victim is a clock, 8 inches diameter, last seen hanging on a wall. Detective Danger should be able to tell us more about the case.”

Dimitri glanced over his shoulder at the familiar voice. A boy with a mess of blond hair and thick circular glasses stood behind him, keeping a serious expression while he munched on a sizeable bag of gummy snacks. With a few strokes of his paintbrush he had shaded the lens of his glasses black, embellishing the edges with a slight tip.

“Looks like this clock… _ran outta time_.” The boy paused, tossing another gummy into his mouth. “Detective Danger, whadda we know?”

“Hey Ed.” Dimitri replied with a small smile. He leaned back, letting Ed get a better look at the clock. “Seems your ‘victim’ is a tool. A ghost was able to interact with it- managed to knock it off the wall.”

Ed cocked his head to the side. “Huh. Clumsy poltergeist? Normal clock with a bad hook and funny timing?” He offered. Dimitri shook his head.

“Normal clocks wouldn’t react to spectral energy. Can you actually see though that?” He added, looking over the inked stained glasses.

“Nope. Not even a little.” Ed replied with a grin. He paused, turning away; by the time he turned back around a second later, his glasses were clear again. “By the way, didja get the color? ‘Cause if the clock’s a tool and it’s your color you should call dibs.”

With a flick of his wrist, the black tip of Ed’s paintbrush curved and hardened into a hook. He plucked the clock off the ground with the tip of the hook, examining it more closely. “It’ll be fun. You'll probably get some fancy new time travelin’ super powers. Then you can go to the future when robots are callin’ the shots. Then lead a human revolt and become a folk hero or somethin'. Then probably die fightin' the good fight on a robot battlefield.” He balanced the clock on the tip of his paintbrush for a while before hanging it in front of Dimitri. “Or you could show the clock to Mr. Spender after school. I’m not here to tell ya how to live your life.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Dimitri replied, tucking the clock into his backpack. “Though while we’re on the subject, what _are_ you doing here? Did Mr. Spender send you?” Dimitri had been doing morning patrol independently for a few weeks now; Mr. Spender’s insistence to call at the first sign of trouble had cooled to the ever-present reminder of “reasonable caution.” Save the occasional rampaging spirit, the usual push and pull of the paranormal world was fairly manageable for any spectral who kept their wits about them. Of course, that made Ed’s arrival all the more unusual.

“Hm? Oh, no, I wasn’t _sent_ , really. Just thought…” Ed glanced down for a moment, fiddling with the plastic of his gummy snacks. Then the moment passed and he looked back up with a toothy grin. “Just thought you might wanna partner in crime, ya know? Morning patrol can be pretty boring by yourself- I tag along with Isabel all the time. Unless…” He paused, rapidly reapplying a layer of ink to the glasses he had cleared only moments ago. “Detective Danger works alone.”

Dimitri recognized that Ed was giving him an easy out to refuse his offer. It was tempting; Dimitri could handle being around other people, but too much of it was draining, and Dimitri understood the value of having time set aside to be alone and focus on his own thoughts. Still, Ed’s offer provided an interesting opportunity to better understand what made another member of the Activity Club tick. Practically speaking, Ed was hardly the most important piece on the board- but that didn’t mean that being able to predict the supposed “random variable” of the group wouldn’t be useful. And if nothing else, he was curious as to Ed’s real motivations were for coming to school an hour early and tagging along for a job he so often complained about.

“There’s still this hall, the second and third grade classrooms, and the gymnasium left to check.” He said, gesturing down the hallway with a nod of his head. “We can loop around, check the classrooms down each hallway, and hit the gymnasium last. Should give us plenty of time to finish patrol before class starts.”

Ed gave a curt nod, raising his paintbrush to his forehead in joking salute. “Lead the way, Danger.”

\---

With the exception of one poltergeisting slime spirit scaling the walls of a second grade classroom (two spectrals were more than enough to handle it, and the brown markings it left on the ceiling, if noticed, could easily be written off as mold), the morning patrol remained fairly uneventful. As they made their way down each hallway, Ed made a game of balancing his paintbrush upright on his palm, shifting his hand and sometimes his entire body as the paint brush tilted one direction or another. All the while the spectral managed to keep up a largely one-sided conversation.

“Then she said that she wouldn’t eat eggs that came from a giant flying lizard spirit, and I’m thinkin’, that’s the _point_ of a spectral omelet. I mean, why bother making an omelet from all spirit stuff if you’re – ack!” Ed darted forward as his paintbrush tilted away from him. “If you’re not willing to eat some lizard eggs, you know? And anyway, eggs are the easy part- the fixins’re where you run into trouble, if you’re not open to some new ideas…”

Dimitri half-listened while Ed rambled on in a light, bizarre stream of consciousness that Dimitri imagined was his version of small talk. It was charming, in its own way. Every so often Ed would look over at Dimitri to gauge his reaction, often losing control of his paintbrush in the process. He kept a surprisingly close eye on his audience, for someone with a reputation for being oblivious. Dimitri would occasionally make a comment when the conversation paused or accept a gummy when Ed offered the bag; that seemed to be enough for the other spectral.

There was a familiar creaking noise as the boys pushed open the double doors to the gymnasium. A light blue spirit darted past them, joining the hundreds of other spirits that hung from the rafters, raced across the court, and peered from the bleachers. The gym was situated in the center of the school, and was the largest room in the building. It made sense that it would also host the largest number of spirits.

As he looked over at Ed, Dimitri noticed that the other spectral had stopped talking. Ed was sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching the interplay between the spirits with a surprisingly pensive expression. His fingers fidgeted slightly, this time pressing against grain at the wooden end of his paintbrush. Dimitri leaned against the side of the bleachers, his eyes falling over the sea of spirits.

“I thought I was an alien.” Ed suddenly blurted out.

The outburst was quickly swallowed by a few more seconds of silence. For a moment Ed was perfectly still. Suddenly he whipped around at with another wide, theatrical grin, as if he had just told a funny joke and was waiting for Dimitri’s reaction.

Dimitri held his gaze, not laughing, or smirking, or giving any gesture that would dismiss what Ed had just said. Ed gave Dimitri too little credit, if he thought he could listened to Ed’s jokes all morning and not spot the difference now. No- the outburst was nonsensical, but Ed had meant it. So Dimitri waited for Ed to explain.

Ed’s grin faltered, looking more taken aback than anything else. He turned away again, his hands continuing to worry over the wood of his paintbrush. “When I was little.” He finally continued, “When I first started seeing shades and getting spectral energy and all that. I thought that I musta been an alien in the body of a little kid, and that the mothership was gonna come down and pluck me up and carry me off to a planet with a buncha other aliens like me.”

Ed leaned forward onto his stomach and started doodling on the gymnasium floor: stars and planets and a large UFO with a boy staring out the window at it all. “I was pretty accepting of it too, you know? Real ready to embrace my alien heritage. Started doin’ stuff like eatin’ paper and hangin’ upside down and makin’ up my own language.”

Ed let out a small laugh- a strange, automatic sound. He paused from his work, resting his chin on his arms like a pillow. “The funny thing is, it all kinda worked out. ‘Cause there was a lot of other stuff going on then, too, and a lot of people waiting see how I’d respond to that stuff. But when I was the alien kid, even when I was respondin’ to spirits and stuff other people couldn’t see, well, it was just the alien kid being funny again, you know? Everyone could just laugh it off.” Ed paused for a moment. “And makin’ people laugh s’lot more fun than makin’ people worry.”

Ed pushed himself up slightly, grabbing for his paintbrush. “Well, someone musta seen me reacting to spirits and put two and two together. Then they sent me to Gramps’ dojo." The spectral perked up as a few eager brushstrokes began detailing the scene. "I found out what spirits and spectrals really were- plus I got to meet Isabel, and start training...”

The story tapered off as Ed began to excitedly draw out the scene. Soon the floor was covered in sketches of Master Guerra, the Guerras’ house, and several other spectrals and spirits surrounding them. Isabel was the largest figure in the image, brandishing her book tool with confident grin on her face. Next to her was a smaller, bespectacled figure with a wide smile. Ed sat up to admire his handiwork, his excited expression slowly becoming wistful.

“It’s funny. Isabel’s been a spectral since she was _really_ little. I don’t know if she remembers ever not knowing what a spirit is, you know? Even for Mr. Spender, it was a really long time ago, back when he was a kid. And most adults don’t really remember being kids, ‘least not as well as they think they do.” Ed turned to look directly at Dimitri. “But seeing all this stuff for the first time, not knowin’ what it is- that’s somethin’ else, huh?”

Dimitri’s said nothing in response, keeping his expression unreadable. From behind the double doors of the gym he could hear the clamor of students becoming louder. “The buses are pulling in.” Dimitri finally remarked. “We should get going.”

It was as if a trace had been broken. “Really? Ack, I told Izzy I’d meet her ‘fore class!” Ed exclaimed. He hopped to his feet, shoving his paintbrush into his pocket and emptying the remaining half a bag of gummy snacks into his mouth. “Gotta run - see you after school, Dee!” He shouted through a mouthful of gummies. He paused at the door. “And, uh, let me know if you wanna partner up for morning patrol again, okay?”

Dimitri nodded in response, listening as the gym doors closed behind Ed with a creak. Dimitri scanned the gym once more, his gaze falling on the drawings still sketched across the floor. Ed had forgotten, or perhaps hadn’t been bothered, to erase them. Pictures detailing Ed's life, his thoughts, his secrets, left completely out in the open– even if only a handful of people could actually see them.

Why did Ed tell him about all of that? They knew each other through the Activity Club, of course, but they weren’t close. Ed had no more reason to trust Dimitri with his life story than Dimitri had to trust Ed with his. Perhaps it was Ed’s way of bonding, though it seemed to Dimitri rather backwards to tell someone your secrets in order to build your trust in them. Besides, Ed didn’t press Dimitri to talk about his experience becoming a spectral, really. He seemed content to just have Dimitri listen. 

Dimitri remembered becoming a spectral, of course. Seeing shades and then spirits for the first time. It was… inexplicable. He had no idea what was going on, or what to do about it. It felt confusing and chaotic and _crowded_. And there was the gnawing explanation through it all, a thought that he couldn’t shake. That it wasn’t real, that it was him, and what he was seeing and feeling and thinking, that was wrong. He couldn’t trust his own senses. He couldn’t trust his own mind.

Dimitri felt the familiar tug of spectral energy, sprouting around him. He closed his eyes, focusing his attention on scattering the wisps of energy. It didn’t matter; whatever Ed chose to confess about himself, Dimitri’s initial transition as a spectral was not something that was open for discussion, and he planned on keeping it that way.

The clamor from outside was just starting to die down as kids made their way to their classrooms. Dimitri slipped out of the gym, joining the still sizable crowd of students to head to his first class. All things considered, it had been a very informative morning. He hardly knew what had possessed Ed to come this morning, but so long as the other spectral was willing to share his stories without any expectations from Dimitri, Dimitri saw no harm in hearing him out.

He smiled; morning patrol was about to get a bit more interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. It didn't turn out exactly as I was expecting, but it was interesting bouncing between Dimitri's perspective and Ed's dialog. It's fascinating how different the two are; hopefully I was able to capture that contrast of personality while still maintaining their own voices. 
> 
> Thanks again for reading! This is my first paranatural fanfic, so I'd love feedback! Have a great day!


End file.
